A FIREFLY IN FLIGHT || Quil Ateara

three; window.

After she was comfortable with how things were set up, she hesitantly went up and asked Harry if he had any books for her to read until she could go out and get her own. All he had was fishing books, which made her laugh, but she sat down anyway and chatted about the only thing that they still had no answers for.

Peter Clearwater and Diane Mallard.

What had separated them so viciously they stayed out of contact for over fifty years?

"He always said his favourite animal was a duck," Harry told her, his dark brown eyes thoughtful. "We raised a few growing up — just in that backyard out there, to tell you the truth — and I always thought that's what he meant."

"But now you think he meant my Gran," Rosemary concluded.

Harry nodded. "They always got on his nerves, which never made sense to me...and he never showed me photos of the duck he always talked about. He took photos of everything, but never had any pictures of his favourite duck. Hell, he even said his favourite Mallard once or twice. Mom never liked that, and now I guess I know why."

Rosemary paused to think about it, her hand holding a cold can of Root Beer. "That's...I was going to say sad but that's honestly just straight up depressing," she said finally.

Harry nodded and chuckled.

Shoes scuffing up the front walk echoed through the open windows in the living room. "That'll be my kids," Harry chuckled, glancing back as the front door swung open.

The girl — Leah, she assumed — came in first. Obviously the oldest, she looked close to graduating. She wore low rise jeans and a sweater a couple sizes too big, along with a pair of black rain boots. Her black hair was long, ending just below her breasts. Rosemary offered her a smile, but the girl just looked her up and down then stalked down the hall. A moment later, a door slammed shut.

"Ignore her," the smiling young boy said to her. Seth. "It's been a long week...month...honestly it's been a really long few months," he sighed. His black hair was on the longer side, as if he were starting to grow it out. He looked younger than her, but not by much. Fourteen, maybe?

In contrast to the deep frown on his sister's face, this boy was all wide smiles and excitement. He kicked his shoes off, dropped his bag at the door, and came up to her while initiating a fist bump. "Seth," he introduced himself with a grin. "You're the girl staying downstairs, right?"

"Rosemary," she confirmed, then glanced down the hall. "And that was..."

"That was Leah," Seth finished for her with a relatively dramatic grimace. "There's a lot of stuff going on with her, just try not to take it personally."

Rosemary smiled faintly and raised an eyebrow. "My parents are divorced and I've spent the last six Christmas' on my living room couch with a nanny while my parents went on holidays with their partners. It's hard for me to take anything personally," she promised him. It was true; having a different nanny every year only made it worse.

That made him grin. "How old are you?" He asked curiously.

"I'm sixteen, but I'll be seventeen in October."

"Oh, what day?"

"The 23rd."

"Dang, it would've been cool if your birthday was on Halloween."

Rosemary snorted. "You have no idea how many times I wished the same thing."

•••••

When Sue got home at 7 that evening, she brought two boxes of pizza with her. They let her and Seth go first, as they tried to get Leah to come out and grab something, so Rosemary watched him stack his plate. Then he grabbed two cans of Pepsi and shoved them in his sweater pocket.